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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24819532">May 15th</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hime_no_Kowai_Shumi/pseuds/Hime_no_Kowai_Shumi'>Hime_no_Kowai_Shumi</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>NCIS</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Rewrite, Episode s09x24, Episode s10x01, Multi, Two Teams AU</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:02:29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,561</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24819532</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hime_no_Kowai_Shumi/pseuds/Hime_no_Kowai_Shumi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>May 15th 2012, A day of loss, a day of sorrow, a day to remember, and vow this will never happen again.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Caitlin Todd/Ziva David (implied), Jethro Gibbs/Abby Sciuto/Jenny Shepard</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>May 15th</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Giving 9x24 and 10x01 the re-write treatment. Established GJA, Two Teams AU</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The bomb goes off right outside Abby's lab. Vance's car is blown into smithereens. The blast reverberates throughout the building. Everything goes black.</p>
<hr/>
<p>His arms wrap around her just seconds before the explosion, her name coming out in a panicked shout as he pulls her to him. Glass explodes around them, rubble coming down over them.</p>
<p>The force of the blast sends her and Gibbs toppling over, the windows shattering around them. And then the wall collapses as they're sent across the floor. She feels her lab coat catch (on what she doesn't know) and her arm is yanked one way, her body the other, but there's no time to cry out, as Gibbs forces his body to move protectively overtop of her.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Kate pulls Ziva into the elevator, praying they have enough time to get to the first floor. The lights flicker, the car shakes, and then they're plunged into darkness.</p>
<p>Ziva allows herself to be pulled, not wanting to be separated from the woman. It probably wasn't smart to be in an elevator when there was a bomb outside, but they had better luck surviving in here. She hopes. The car shakes as the power flickers hesitantly, and then they're encased in the darkness.</p>
<hr/>
<p>The force of the blast sends McGee falling to the floor. He hits the ground hard, his head making a sickening crack off the side of Tony's desk. Darkness swims over his vision, and nearly immediately after, he loses consciousness.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Tony has his phone pressed to his ear as he flies down the flights of stairs. The blast sends him stumbling down the stairwell, sending him sprawling onto the third-floor landing, his phone clattering beside him. As he falls unconscious, he sees the flickering of flames from the floors below him, the ashen smoke rising slowly.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Ducky got the news of the attack as he walked along the beach to Jimmy's destination wedding. He stopped to take the call, Jack and Kasie continuing to walk ahead of him. Dearing's bomb, no idea how many casualties. So maybe people, innocent people…</p>
<p>The shock and surprise is too much. The heart attack overtakes him suddenly, and he collapses onto his knees.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Kasie and Jack stop talking as Ducky's voice fades and they turn just as he collapses, his phone clattering into the watery sand beside him. Just as they reached him, Jimmy came running over, having just come down to the beach to see where they were.</p>
<hr/>
<p>The Harper Dearing case had been Team Gibbs' Number One priority, and consequently, Team Shepard's as well. It was mind-numbing, and a level of unease was constantly present. Not knowing when or where he would strike next. With Jimmy's wedding coming up, they'd encouraged Jack, Kasie and Ducky to go with him, with them due to follow after the case had wrapped. They were close to closing in on Dearing, she knew. Jethro and his team would stop him, bring him in.</p>
<p>Dearing's hatred, his grief, she knew it well. But revenge wasn't the answer that he so desperately wanted. She knew that too. She knew it all too well.</p>
<p>Leon was still in the hospital recovering from Dearing kidnapping him, and that led to a team of agents guarding the hospital in rotations. Today just happened to have her team assigned as protective detail, with another team to take over for them in a few hours. Her team was stationed at the entry points to the hospital, and she sat by Leon's bedside; it was just a precaution, she knew; the man had already been kidnapped once, who knew what Dearing had planned?</p>
<p>The call comes in after a few minutes. Quinn, from the north end of the hospital. She was obviously in shock, her voice fearful, panicked, "Turn on the TV, channel 8."</p>
<p>The headline blares in red across the bottom of the screen, the building burning behind the words.</p>
<p>
  <strong>Terror Attack on Navy Yard. President on Route. Unknown Casualties.</strong>
</p>
<p>"Oh my God." Dread. Terror.</p>
<p>"Go," Leon's voice is low, tired, and she turns to him, "I'll be okay. Go."</p>
<p>"But…" She frowns, her face twisted in both confusion and worry.</p>
<p>Leon interrupts her, "He got his target. It's not me. So go. I'm fine."</p>
<p>Her voice is calm as she speaks into the phone again, "Get the others now."</p>
<hr/>
<p>NCIS HQ was swarming with fire and rescue personnel, NCIS agents that had gotten out, and a few FBI agents. It doesn't take long for her and her team to get permission to help. And as she helped get her fellow agents out, she tried not to think of all the dead she was passing, and hoped that her loves were alright.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Quinn finds Tony unconscious on the third floor landing, fire licking at his feet as it rose dangerously. She hoists him up and carefully maneuvers him into a sitting position, feeling for a pulse as she calls for fire and rescue personnel. She wasn't sure how anyone could've missed him, but maybe fire and rescue hadn't gotten this far yet. Luckily, the smoke hardly did any damage and they have him in a breathing mask and awake. She stays by him anyway, just to make sure.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Torres and Reeves hear the clanking from the elevator and Kate and Ziva's shouting; not panicked, not really, just trying to let someone know they were there; they were worried, clearly, but it was obvious that they weren't in distress. At least, no more distress than being in an unmoving elevator could cause.</p>
<p>It'll take a while for them to get out, the amount of debris on top of the broken elevator making a huge mess, but they reassure them that they won't leave. They try to force the doors open, but with no success. It's nearly forty-five minutes before fire and rescue can finally get the doors open; they look a little worse for wear, bleeding from cuts and scrapes but nothing too extreme thankfully.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Bishop finds McGee as he's slowly waking up, insisting that he's fine. The shard of glass in his side draws her attention, and he sees it too. It's deep, they both know it. It's a sickly sight. She's careful as she leads him down the stairs, careful to avoid the fire. He complains about a headache, and she makes sure fire and rescue know he'll need surgery and an MRI.</p>
<hr/>
<p>As she discovers from the fire chief, the explosion happened right outside of Abby's lab, caused by a bomb in Vance's car. Bystanders saw that Jonathan Cole was attempting to defuse the bomb. He'd died in the process, not being quick enough to stop it. And Jethro had raced to get to Abby, who had been hurrying to leave the lab. The bomb blew out the windows first, and then the side of the building started to crumble. There was rubble and glass, and she could see part of the lab, but there was no sign of her lovers. Either they were buried underneath equipment, or they were unconscious. Or maybe…</p>
<p>She immediately gets to work, trying to clear a space, to actually get into the lab area, to look for them. She was not going to lose them both on the same day, damn it! Every minute mattered, every second. A torn piece of a lab coat is what they find first, buried under rubble. It makes her heart come to a fast halt momentarily.</p>
<p>It feels like hours pass before they manage to clear the rubble enough to get into the lab. She's careful as she avoids shards of glass. The lab is a mess, tables and cabinets thrown over, monitors broken.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Kasie and Jack race back to HQ once Ducky is safely at the hospital. Jimmy promises them updates, reassures them that he'll be fine. They find Quinn sitting in an ambulance with DiNozzo, a breathing mask over his face. Quinn kept the fellow senior agent calm, and they followed his line of sight, see Torres and Reeves talking with a couple fire and rescue members.</p>
<p>"What's the status?" Jack asks.</p>
<p>Quinn speaks before Tony can remove his mask, "Kate and Ziva are still trapped in the elevator. Not sure how long until they're out," She turned to Tony as he fumbled with his mask, determined to get a word in, "Mask on, DiNozzo."</p>
<p>"What about the others?" Kasie asks.</p>
<p>Bishop comes running up to them, panting, "McGee is on his way to the hospital. Shard of glass in his side and a possible concussion."</p>
<p>Quinn looks around, confused, "Where's Ducky? Wasn't he with you?"</p>
<p>"Hospital," Jack informs them, "he got the call and had a heart attack."</p>
<p>"Oh my God," Tony breathes out from behind the mask, "Is he gonna be okay?"</p>
<p>"Yeah," Kasie nods.</p>
<p>"Doctors are working on him, and Jimmy is with him, waiting on updates." Jack says, and then she turns, looks around, "Where's Gibbs? And Abby?"</p>
<p>"The blast was right outside the lab." Quinn says, "Jen's looking with fire and rescue now."</p>
<hr/>
<p>"Abby? Jethro?"</p>
<p>She waits, holds her breath. No answer. She hears more than sees the other fire and rescue workers move to help. This area had the most damage, what if… She squashes the thoughts immediately. There was no time for that.</p>
<p>She takes a breath, "Abby? Jethro?"</p>
<p>And then from a lone corner of the room, further back from where the explosion happened, still surrounded by the debris, she hears it.</p>
<p>"Jen?"<br/>It's Jethro's voice that calls back to her. Rough, ragged. Exhausted.</p>
<p>Relief sweeps through her, "We're almost there. Gonna get you out. How's Abby?"</p>
<p>One minute, two. Finally he answers, "She's okay. Unconscious. Looks like her arm is broken."</p>
<p>"And you?"</p>
<p>"Leg hurts but I'm okay."</p>
<hr/>
<p>They had a few guardian angels that day. Somehow, during the blast, the metal tables had been forced towards them right before the rubble started to fall. As they hit the floor, Abby had managed to break her arm, and Jethro had moved on top of her, determined to protect her. He'd fractured his leg to stop their unintentional barricade just right as the debris started to fall. He'd also managed to get a nasty cut on his head but he was otherwise okay, if not sore. Still, he'd been insistent that Abby be taken care of first.</p>
<hr/>
<p>"Would you stop fussing over me please," The Goth is sitting in an ambulance not far away from where the others were as a paramedic took a look at her. But her attention isn't on the paramedic, her words directed at Gibbs and Jen, the former leaning heavily against the vehicle, "Gibbs, you need your leg looked at. It could be broken."</p>
<p>"It's not."</p>
<p>"I'm <em>fine</em>," She emphasizes the word, looking between them, "I'm awake, conscious."</p>
<p>"Ma'am, hold still," The paramedic says sternly, though with an edge of bemusement in her tone.</p>
<p>Abby complies, continuing her mini-rant, "Go see how the others are."</p>
<p>"Abbs," Gibbs' voice is annoyed, just slightly, and then he pauses. A beat. Two.</p>
<p>It's only quick reflexes that Jen even grabs him, as he falls into her, his leg finally giving out.</p>
<p>"You're an idiot," Jen whispers lovingly into his hair as she settles him into a sitting position beside Abby, "Sit with Abby. I'll go see about the others."</p>
<p>"She's fierce," the paramedic says as she checks Gibbs' vitals.</p>
<p>"Yeah," Abby says softly, Gibbs echoing her sentiments as the two watch after her.</p>
<hr/>
<p>In the days following the attack, there were a lot of adjustments made. McGee's surgery to remove the glass shard had gone well, and he was being kept for observation overnight. Vance was finally released from the hospital, under Doctor's orders to take it easy. Ducky was still in recovery from his heart attack, but his doctors were optimistic that he'd make a full recovery. Kate and Ziva were cleared for active duty, as was Tony. Gibbs was stuck on desk duty for a week, something that bugged the man to no end. The fracture hadn't been too bad, but the doctors were making sure he wasn't going to over exert himself. <em>That </em>had made sleeping arrangements at home a bit trickier; as had Abby's broken arm. The Goth's cast had to be on for at least 7 weeks, depending on how quickly she would heal.</p>
<p>Getting HQ back into shape was another matter entirely. The squad room and Forensics lab destroyed, they were doing their best in their off-base headquarters while things were rebuilt.</p>
<p>And then there was the matter of Dearing himself. He'd disappeared, gone. And after what their family had gone through, she'd made it her personal mission to find him. She knew Jethro had the same thoughts swirling through his head. They would both lay awake following the explosion, neither talking, just listening to Abby breathing. A second too late, or had the bomb gone off a second or two sooner…she shuddered to think about it.</p>
<p>They received regular updates from Jimmy about Ducky, and the teams called to check in every morning; Jack called to see if either of them wanted to talk <em>through the trauma</em>. But they both knew no healing would happen until Dearing was dead.</p>
<p>Kasie gets a signal off Dearing's cell phone a few days later. Jethro wanted to come, wanted to be the one to end it all. She grabs his pocket knife in his stead.</p>
<p>"<em>He hurt my family</em>," Jethro had said.</p>
<p>Dearing hurt hers too.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Dearing is staring out the window of the house when she enters the room. The house <em>where Evan grew up</em>, he tells her. She surveys it quickly, the gun beside him on the windowsill. He addresses her, but she doesn't hear the words he says.</p>
<p><em>He hurt my family</em>. Jethro's words echo over and over in her head.</p>
<p>"We're a lot alike, Gibbs and I." Dearing says.</p>
<p>"How's that?"</p>
<p>"I know what he did for his family. He had a job to do."</p>
<p>"And you think that what you did is…"</p>
<p>Dearing turns to her with a sardonic smile, "I know what you did for your family too, Agent Shepard." The memories come in quick flashes. La Grenouille. Svetlana Chernitskaya.</p>
<p>She narrows her eyes but doesn't move from the doorway, "No regrets?"</p>
<p>He turns back to the window, sighing softly, "Do I have regrets? Yea, some. But not all. Maybe things happen for a reason."</p>
<p>She sees Dearing reach for the gun and steps up behind him, pulling the knife out. As he turns, she stabs him through the gut. She's felt this anger before, hot and white, righteous fury she hasn't felt since her father's passing. They'd lost so many people. And it was all his fault. She thrusts the knife once, twice, until Dearing's eyes go blank. And then it was over.</p>
<hr/>
<p>When Jethro greets her at home that night, the news is on in the background; Dearing's death scrolling across the screen, and Abby watches it from the couch, Bert tucked under her good arm. There's understanding in his eyes, pride even.</p>
<p>They'd done so much for the people they loved, but she knew that they'd never stop so long as they had people to protect.</p>
<hr/>
<p>May 15th 2012</p>
<p>A day of loss</p>
<p>A day of sorrow</p>
<p>A day to remember</p>
<p>And vow this will</p>
<p>Never happen again</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading. Please review!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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